Functional Exercises

A functional movement is an activity that someone does to mimic everyday actions. A functional exercise helps to improve that action/movement. 

However, functional exercises can be something different to different people. A regular person (not an athlete) can have certain functional movements and athletes can have others.

Building on that, athletes in different sports also have differing functional movements.

There are 7 types of functional movements that a body completes throughout the day to perform tasks:

• Squat or Sit to Stand (this is performed when getting up from a chair or toilet)
• Lunge (performed when you need to pick up something from the floor)
• Push (usually upper body, moving objects around the house)
• Pull (picking something up)
• Hinge (also picking up an object from floor or tying your shoes
• Twist (turning your body to reach behind yourself)
• Walk (getting from place to place)

In physical therapy, we focus on exercises that will improve those everyday tasks and the movements above are how we do that. 

In the article here, it shows how physical therapists can use functional movements for testing function.

When working with athletes, understanding their sport and the position they play is crucial in understanding the functional patterns they need to be able to complete. This is a large reason why sports and orthopedic physical therapy are 2 different types.

Functional Exercises 

Sit to stand

Lunges

Step ups

Russian Twist

Bicep Curls

Deadlift

Tricep Pulldown

These exercises are ones I recommend for everyone to complete to ensure they are still able to move and perform daily tasks. They can be completed with or without resistance, but resistance should be added when they are too easy.

Like usual, performing 3 sets of 10 repetitions will help with starting an exercise regimen to maintain functional independence. If you are interested in getting started with more exercises, check out my body weight exercises blog post here.

Because a functional movement is an activity that someone does to mimic everyday actions, the exercises should be performed multiple times a week.